DHAKA: The chief executive of Google, Sundar Pichai, has been awarded $199m in shares, a regulatory filing has revealed.

It makes him the highest-paid chief executive in the US, reports the BBC.

Pichai became chief executive of the search engine giant following the creation of its parent, Alphabet.

The founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have amassed fortunes of $34.6bn and $33.9bn, according to Forbes.

Pichai, 43, was awarded 273,328 Alphabet shares on 3 February, worth a total of $199m, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The new award of shares takes Pichai’s total stock value to approximately $650m.

Pichai’s share award will vest incrementally each quarter until 2019. In other words, full control over the shares will pass to him on a gradual basis.

The Google chief executive joined the company since 2004, initially leading product management on a number of Google’s client software products, including Google Chrome] and Chrome OS, as well as being largely responsible for Google Drive.

He also oversaw the development of Gmail and Google Maps.

He previously worked in engineering and product management at Applied Materials and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.

It comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of Google’s tax affairs, following the company’s deal with HM Revenue & Customs to pay back taxes dating from 2005.

The controversial tax deal was labeled derisory by Labour. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell called for greater transparency, saying it looked like a ‘sweetheart deal’.

‘HMRC seems to have settled for a relatively small amount in comparison with the overall profits that are made by the company in this country. And some of the independent analysts have argued that it should be at least 10 times this amount,’ he said.

BDST: 2038 HRS, FEB 09, 2016
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